REVOLUTION Recap: Everyone loves a good execution

Revolution 2.06: Dead Man Standing

Miles and Monroe seemingly do a bang-up job framing the Patriots for the ranger’s death, reverting into their old patterns of working together. Monroe then captures a Patriot soldier and tortures a bunch of data out of him before killing him.

While Rachel’s father Porter is happy to have Charlie back, in true father fashion, he’s not going to tolerate the animosity between them and asks what the issue is, but Charlie refuses to clue him in.

Rachel confronts Miles about Monroe. Miles tells her that they need him because he’d rather Monroe do the dirty work than him (which is an interesting ethical argument). Rachel doesn’t buy it.

Monroe is soon captured by a group of both Patriots and Rangers after they find out where he’s hiding. They parade him through the town in a prison wagon to much pomp and circumstance and old-style publicity. Charlie and Miles scheme to break him out of jail while he flashes back to 3 years after the blackout. Monroe has a girlfriend, and she’s pregnant.

Their plan for a jail break is thwarted by Rachel, who tips off the authorities, who move Monroe to the bank vault. She tells Charlie that she was worried she’d be caught and killed and Charlie tells her off for not asking how she’s been since she was gone and tells her that Monroe saved her life.

Monroe is swiftly convicted and sentenced to death by lethal injection (c’mon Texas – no firing squad?). In another flashback, we see that his baby (and presumably the girlfriend?) dies during childbirth.

Monroe asks for Miles as his last request. They have a male bonding moment and Monroe tells Miles about the son he has with Emma and asks him to try to find him and look after him. Miles tells him that his son is fine – he knew about him and had been hiding him from Monroe for years, which doesn’t go over well to put it lightly.

The whole town shows up for Monroe’s execution. Rachel draws up the drugs for the injection and her dad presides over it.  In a flashback to not long after his baby died, Monroe and some buddies (not Miles) massacre a nearby camp to steal their possessions – the first major act in his turn to the dark side.

Porter injects the drugs and pronounces Monroe dead. Charlie, after wanting Monroe dead for so long, finds herself quite upset and Miles drowns his sorrows in alcohol while Monroe is buried.

And… in possibly the biggest bombshell of the season, Rachel’s dad has been working with the Patriots all along!!! He turned in Monroe, but he threatens the Patriots’ leader that they’d better not harm Miles, Charlie, or Rachel, or “Dr. Horn” will be angry. And with that, a man who is likely the mysterious Dr. Horn rides into town in a wagon festooned with the symbol that Aaron has been doodling.

Meanwhile, outside of town, Rachel starts to dig up Monroe’s grave.

Neville/Jason

Secretary Allenford leads Neville to near the “reprogramming center” which is a special ops program for the Patriots. He’s quickly engaged by a bunch of Patriots recruits and soon finds what he is looking for – Jason. Unfortunately, Jason seems to have been effectively reprogrammed as he immediately starts shooting at Neville, forcing him to run for cover.  Allenford reveals that her oldest son was “lost” to a similar program. Her husband is highly ranked in the Patriots but his priority is his country not his family.

She and Neville hide while Jason and his crew hunt them. Neville manages to set a trap for him and disarms him at gunpoint. Jason’s learned some new skills, and Neville is losing the fight until Allenford knocks Jason out with a pipe.

Neville ties Jason up and tries to get through to him but Jason pushes all his buttons by telling him that his mother was having an affair. Neville becomes only more determined to save him.

My Thoughts:

Wow, there haven’t been any dull moments so far this season! Although the creators have shown no mercy when it came to killing off other main characters in the past, Monroe is such a fabulous character that causes everyone else so much moral conflict that I think it would be crazy to kill him off now. So, I’m going to assume that Rachel somehow faked Monroe’s death, but whether anyone else was in on it remains to be seen. Knowing her ruthlessness, I can’t wait to see what her plan for him is. She’s certainly not the one to do things out of the goodness of her heart and she’s got more reason to hate him than anyone else between her imprisonment and Ben and Danny’s deaths. Maybe she saved him for Miles, or maybe she’s got a plan. One can only hope it winds up more successful and less destructive than her previous plans…

Porter’s involvement with the Patriots came as a total surprise. His character has come over as so honest and upstanding, that he seemed like he could only be on the side of good. With as influential as the Patriots now are and with the extent that their influence reaches, you’ve gotta wonder how no one knew about them before, even in a world with slow communication. The more we learn about them, the more diabolical they get. Ironic that Rachel saved the country from Monroe, only to help put an even bigger evil into power.

Can’t wait for next week!

Memorable Quotes and Other Stuff:

Are you stupid? – Miles to Monroe

Aaron reading Torch Man comic books “for research”

Watch Revolution on Wednesdays at 8/7c on NBC!